0Sydney: INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence was not worth a cent when he took
his own life in a Sydney hotel eight years ago, reports said Saturday.
The Australian band filled stadiums, topped the charts and sold 30 million
records in the 1980s, but was short of fans when 37-year-old Hutchence died
in 1997.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Hutchence estate was valued at
nothing by his executors despite his reported ownership of properties in
Australia, England, France and Indonesia, luxury cars and steady royalty
payments from INXS.
Hutchence's financial advisers told the paper that the hard-living rocker
hid his millions in trust companies around the world. They said Hutchence
didn't want his "thieving relatives" and his "girlfriends" getting his
money.
In the year before his death, he made a will in which Amnesty International
and Greenpeace would each get 250,000 Australian dollars ($187,000), but the
money was never paid.
Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, his daughter by the late Paula Yates, former
wife of ex-rocker and global philanthropic saint Sir Bob Geldof, was to have
received half of the remaining estate, with the other half split between his
then partner, Yates, his mother, father, brother and sister.
Yates, broken-hearted by Hutchence's hanging death in the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel, died of a drug overdose.
Since the loss, INXS has played to smaller and smaller audiences.
American soul singer Terence Trent D'Arby tried out for the position left
vacant by Hutchence, as did Australian crooner Jon Stevens, but nothing came
of the experiment.
This year, the remaining members turned to reality television to earn money
on the INXS franchise. "Rock Star" follows the fortunes of the band as it
auditions potential replacements for Hutchence.
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